my sin;
Nor could aught ease the grief that I was in,
Till I came hither; what a place is this!
Must here be the beginning of my bliss?
Must here the burden fall from off my back?
Must here the strings that bound it to me crack?
Blest cross! blest sepulchre! blest rather be
The man that there was put to shame for me.

I saw then in my dream, that he went on thus, even until he came at the
bottom, where he saw, a little out of the way, three men fast asleep,
with fetters upon their heels. The name of the one was Simple, of
another Sloth, and of the third Presumption.

Christian then, seeing them lie in this case, went to them, if
peradventure he might awake them, and cried, You are like them that
sleep on the top of a mast, for the Dead Sea is under you, a gulf that
hath no bottom: awake, therefore, and come away; be willing also, and I
will help you off with your irons. He also told them, If he that goeth
about like a roaring lion, comes by, you will certainly become a prey to
his teeth. With that they looked upon him, and began to reply in this
sort: Simple said, I see no danger; Sloth said, Yet a little more
sleep; and Presumption said, Every tub must stand upon its own bottom.

And so they lay down to sleep again, and Christian went on his way.

Yet was he troubled to think, that men in that danger should so little
esteem the kindness of him that so freely offered to help them, both by
awakening of them, counselling of them, and proffering to help them off
with their irons. And as he was troubled thereabout, he espied two men
come tumbling over the wall on the left hand of the narrow way; and they
made up apace to him. The name of the one was Formalist, and the name of
the other Hypocrisy. So, as I said, they drew up unto him, who thus
entered with him into discourse.

_Chr._ Gentlemen, whence came you, and whither do you go?

_Form._ and _Hyp._ We were born in the land of Vain-glory, and are
going for praise to Mount Zion.

_Chr._ Why came you not in at the gate which standeth at the beginning
of the way? Know ye not that it is written, that "he that cometh not in
by the door, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a
robber?"

They said, that to go to the gate for entrance was by all their
countrymen counted too far about; and that therefore their usual way was
to make a short cut of it, and to climb over the wall as they had done.

_Chr._ But will it not be counted a tresp